First Pages

Some Tenner authors are posing their first pages, so I thought I'd play. Go here to read more first pages from 2010 debut authors. Here's mine:

Preface

(Or: The Cliff’s Notes Version of My Life Up Until Now)

First off, I’m going to save you from reading seventy-two pages of how I got to a Scottish castle on the Isle of Huracan in the middle of a black churning sea. I need to tell it fast because if you read the long, drawn-out version you’re going to think you’ve heard it all before. It has all the clichés: super-smart, young girl ripped from her cushy life in San Francisco, taken away from her best friend Justine whom she’s known since preschool, relocated to a dreary island castle in Scotland (inherited, of course!) for the summer before her junior year so her parents can see if they want to turn it in to a bed and breakfast, even though they have not made bed nor breakfast for this super-smart girl in years. You’ve heard it a million times, right? Wait, there’s more! The girl finds a secret room attached to her bedroom, because there just has to be a secret room.

            And of course, there’s a monkey. A small monkey that was abandoned at the castle years ago by a Chinese visitor. PETA should give me a medal or something because I convinced Thomas, the whisky-soaked groundskeeper, to move him from the cold little shed behind the castle to the wood cubby by the kitchen fireplace. We lost two cooks over this, but that’s okay. The new cook, Mrs. Findlay, is amazing and she has a beautiful grandson a year older than me that looks like he could be posing for a J. Crew ad every minute of the day. Because there has to be a boy, right? (Thank God!)

Anyway, this monkey knows how to do origami, so his highly original name is Mr. Papers. I know it sounds hard to believe, but he communicates through his origami—kind of like sign language but with paper.

Having a monkey at the castle was a bonus; I would never have been able to get one on my own because Mom is all righteous about caging up animals that live in the wild. You should have seen her face when Thomas first told her about Mr. Papers—I knew the minute she heard the words “monkey” and “origami” she was probably picturing the little guy in a Taiwan sweatshop cranking out origami ornaments for Walmart.

Ashland Event

Yay! I have an Ashland book party date! I'll be at Bloomsbury Books on Wednesday, May 19 at 7:00 in the evening. If you live in the Rogue Valley, please stop by!

This will be a very special event for me, a long-time Ashland girl. Not only do I still have a lot of family and friends in the area, many teachers who were very important to me still live here. Mrs. Bohn taught me to write in the first grade and Mrs. Reynolds encouraged me to enter my first writing contest (which I won!) in third grade. In fourth grade Mrs. Houck got me addicted to summer reading programs at the library, in the fifth grade Mr. Gettling proved that 11 year olds still love to be read to, and in sixth grade Mr. Maulsby instilled a love of vocabulary by doing things like holding a kid upside down by his ankles to illustrate the word inversion. (No one ever forgot that one.) Mrs. Lininger, Mr. Sharp, and Mr. Cicerella were all instrumental in cultivating a deep love of reading and writing in Middle School. And Rooklyn, McBain, and Vondracek were iconic figures in the Ashland High School English department—without a doubt, some of the best teachers I have ever had.

It’s a rare treat to be able to know so many of these teachers in adulthood, and I hope some can make it to the book launch!

Self-Deprecating Sunday

Dream realized: Embarrassing teen photos of me have been featured in “Young Adult Author Self Deprecating Sunday” on the blog of Jody Sparks. I will never be able to touch the epic Josh Berk (The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin) entry, nor can I match the spectacular studio portrait of Tina Ferraro (The ABCs of Kissing Boys) in 10th grade, but I gave it my best. 

Sparks & Butterflies is one of the funniest blogs around. Thanks for helping me realize the dream, Jody!

Village Books! June 5, 12:00

Village Books in Bellingham, Washingon has been a favorite of mine ever since my sister moved there years ago. Not only are they one of the best run independent bookstores in the Pacific Northwest, Village Books also sits atop the Colophon Café, where I once had the best quiche of my life.

Books, coffee, and quiche? Life doesn’t get better than that!

If you live in the Bellingham area, please come see me there at 12:00, June 5th. I’ll also be at Fairhaven Middle School on June 4th. Thanks for having me, Village Books! Can't wait!

All Points Bulletin: I need a monkey, STAT.

It’s true. There’s a monkey in my book. Not only is this capuchin cute, he’s also clever: he communicates through origami. My publisher didn’t even want to mention the monkey on the jacket copy because apparently it skews the book younger. To me this is a head scratcher. I mean, I’m 43 and I can’t read enough about monkeys, especially when they’re doing interesting things like the ancient art of paper folding! But I digress. This post is about finding a monkey.

My friend Tonya thinks that all I need to do to get my book to sell when it releases in May is get a little video footage of a monkey doing origami. She swears she can get the thing to go viral, but we’re missing the key component: the monkey.

I put some feelers out on Facebook and got a lead on a marmoset named Maxwell, but marmosets look more like Gremlins than monkeys. Plus Maxwell’s owner told me he was in a “time out” and the photo he sent showed the little guy in a tiny Superman sweater, so all signs point to him being difficult to work with.

Then I found a guy in LA who rents out a capuchin that looks remarkably like my character. There’s even a photo of him at the wheel of a tiny pirate ship looking quite competent at the helm of a schooner.  I called his agent and asked about taking about five minutes of video of said monkey opening up a piece of origami. I just need the footage, I told him, and then I’d edit it and play the video backwards, making it look like the monkey was folding instead of unfolding the paper. (Genius, no?) He said he’d need $800 just for the shoot and maybe as much to “train” the monkey.  When I remarked that I thought a monkey might just be naturally curious and open up the folded paper on his own, the agent scoffed and said that kind of thing would take a lot of training. Right.

Now I’m at a dead end. I implore you for leads. Someone out there must know someone who knows someone who has a capuchin monkey! Six degrees of separation anyone? The future of my book depends on it!

P.O.D. Bookmarks

I swear one of these days I’ll write an actual post again. Since I turned in my draft of Book 2 I’ve been luxuriating in weekends and evenings that aren’t spent in a sweaty panic trying to get pages out. Instead, I’ve turned my attention to some fun promotional things, like bookmarks! Complete with a shiny silver tassel, which my friend Miles likes to call The Prophecy Cord. The word “Prophecy” seems to give everything a bit more gravitas, no?

If you're a bookmark fan, send me you address via email (christy at christyraedeke dot com) and I’ll get a few in the mail to you!

First Signing

I did it! First ever book signing at the Public Library Association annual conference! I was so nervous that no one would come by but we went through 100 ARCs in an hour.

Free books + librarians = true love.

New Book Trailer!

The new Tenner book trailer is finished! This one highlights what's releasing in April, May, June. Check it out—looks like a great new batch of books!

Same Place, Same Time: Interview with Holly Schindler

Author Holly Schindler and I share something special: we are both having debut books released from the same publisher on the same day! I think it’s fascinating that we both ended up at the same place at the same time, but have had completely different paths to publication. So, what follows is a back-and-forth interview Holly and I conducted to learn about how we both ended up at the answer: "Flux, May 1!"

Holly's book, with one of the most beautiful covers I've seen, is A BLUE SO DARK. It looks fascinating and is already getting a lot of high praise ("A truly real, emotional, and honest read."—Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of Pay it Forward). I can't wait to get my copy!

Raedeke: Hi Holly, do you remember the very day the idea for A BLUE SO DARK came to you?

Schindler: I remember it coming to me in pieces over a few weeks, actually. When I was young, I imagined that authors would get this fantastic "ah-ha" moment in which their characters, (and their characters' struggles and growths) came to them all at once. Maybe some do...But what happens for me is that I get a sliver of an idea--a kind of what-if. From there, I'll write this really general, broad-strokes outline. And I'll start adding to it...


When I got the biggie pieces jotted down for A BLUE SO DARK (creativity and madness, Aura's mentally ill mother, Aura's fear of allowing art to bring "madness" out in herself), the first draft came super-fast...I'd get twenty-plus pages written in a day. And the next morning, I couldn't wait to get up and get back to it. I had to go through about four manuscript overhauls, and honestly, each one wrote just as quickly.


I love a book that's layered--and I think the way books GET layered is that an author kind of stacks dimensions on top of each other with successive rewrites...every time an author goes back, she (or he) adds a new element to the plot, or maybe a new secondary character who interacts with the protagonist in such a way that it illuminates new dimensions of that protagonist...


How about you? Did you get one of those "ah-ha" moments for PROPHECY OF DAYS? Did everything come to you all at once?

Raedeke: The idea for my book came not long after leaving my child for the first time. My husband and I were meeting friends at a University of Oregon football game (Go Ducks!) and had just dropped off our daughter at my Mom's. I know I should have cried or felt guilty or something, but as we drove away the sense of freedom was overwhelming—close to when I bought my first car and drove it home with the top down and Soft Cell blaring. Disclaimer: it was the eighties.

Anyway, something about knowing I was free for the next 30 hours opened up my imagination. On the three-hour drive to Eugene I told Scott the story and we talked it through. The seed was planted. Because I eventually had to go back and claim that child, it took awhile to write. And agent. And sell. And publish. (That child is now 9!) I'm still convinced that good ideas come when you make space for them.

Schindler: Now I'm going to have "Tainted Love" in my head the rest of the day! So true, though, about how long the entire process takes. A BLUE SO DARK was drafted in late 2006, and the offer from Flux came in 2009...But this was NOT the first manuscript I attempted to sell! (I'd been attempting to publish my novels since I got my master's in '01!) Looking back, what kept you motivated to keep working on PROPHECY OF DAYS? What was the initial submission process like? Did you ever hit a wall, feel like publication was never going to happen?

Raedeke: To be honest, curiosity kept me going. This book took a lot of research, which is one of my favorite pastimes. I love following a random thought for an hour or two on the internet; it’s amazing where one fact can lead you. I was also used to working in marketing and business development, so when my kids were little and I was trapped at home during naptime, it felt good to have something to work on. I felt a sense of accomplishment as the page count grew.

My wall came after I got my agent. Fortunately, I only had to endure one query rejection before signing with Laura Rennert of Andrea Brown Literary. I received an email from her late at night saying she had not yet finished the manuscript but she loved it so far and wanted to offer representation. I was ecstatic, of course. The bad news came when she had actually finished reading and thought the ending was weak. She was right, of course, so I went through a huge revision process before it even went out. That was Wall One.

Wall Two came at submission time. PROPHECY OF DAYS went out on submission to several big NYC editors, but this was back in late 2007/early 2008 before the whole 2012 thing was really in the mainstream zeitgeist (especially on the East Coast) and they just didn’t get it. The funny thing is, last year one of the editors who rejected the submission announced at an SCBWI conference that she was actively looking for any books on 2012. What a difference a couple of years can make!

Meanwhile, I had read some great Flux books and had followed and respected Editor Andrew Karre’s blog. I just sensed he’d “get” the book so I suggested to Laura that we send it to him. She'd recently signed Maggie Stiefvater as a client and had just negotiated Maggie's second book at Flux, so she knew Andrew was awesome. As I suspected, he got it. I was fortunate to get one great revision letter from him before he left for Lerner, and then the fabulous Brian Farrey took the reins.

How about you—what kept you going between when you first started writing novels on 2001 and when you sold A BLUE SO DARK in 2009? Did you hit many walls? Did they come pre- or post-agent?

Schindler: Writing was this absolute have-to thing with me. I was ALWAYS writing—even when I was a little girl. I remember, I was in, oh, junior high, I think—I was over at a friend’s house when ROMANCING THE STONE came on TV…You know how it starts, right? With Kathleen Turner bawling as she wraps up her latest novel? My friend started laughing, elbowed me and said, “That’s going to be YOU!”


Writing was just all-encompassing. And it got WORSE as I got older. Seriously. My family offered some incredible financial support so that I could devote full-time effort to writing after I got out of grad school. (They probably thought I was going to explode if I didn’t write…)


Can’t lie—I got pretty frustrated at times, but never to the point of wanting to quit. It CONSTANTLY seemed like I was getting closer to an acceptance. I stopped getting form rejections and started getting “good” rejections—you know, where editors will actually give you feedback, encourage you to keep at it.


I actually sold A BLUE SO DARK myself, without the help of an agent, soon after Brian Farrey got the acquisitions gig at Flux…And talk about an editor “getting” it—I remember hanging up the phone after talking to him the first time and going, “Him. I want to work with HIM.” I could hardly eat that Thanksgiving, because I was sort of tied up in knots, hoping that Flux would acquire the book.

Raedeke: I love that you did it on your own! Flux is amazing about finding great new voices, and I agree Brian is great to work with. He’s been very, uh, patient with me and deadlines. Your family sounds amazing—I have always wanted to live at the time when there were “Art Patrons” who would support artists. Looks like I’ll have to time travel back to Renaissance Europe or feudal Japan; the current economy will definitely not support this trend. Sigh.

Have you always written YA or have you written in other genres?

Schindler: Yeah, I’m incredibly lucky…it’s been very ROOM OF ONE’S OWN around here! I didn’t go 100% completely jobless, though—to help with the bills, I taught piano and guitar lessons out of the house in the afternoons. Up until that time, I’d been writing adult work. My students inspired me to try my hand at YA!


My reading is kind of all over the place…the classics, literary fiction, thrillers, romance, clever cereal boxes, catchy billboards…so my WRITING tends to be a little all over the place, too, in terms of genre. Already, I’ve sold a literary novel and a romance to Flux and an adult romantic comedy to Blooming Tree Press. And what I’m working on now is night-and-day different from what I’ve already sold.


How did you come to YA? Did you write PROPHECY OF DAYS thinking it was YA, or (as it seems like it often happens with first-time authors) did your agent tell you it was YA?

Raedeke: I was journalism major and had taken lots of writing classes though the years, but had always focused on general fiction and narrative nonfiction. This was my first try at a Young Adult book, and basically I was writing the perfect book for myself at that age. I’ve always been intrigued by esoterica, ancient mysteries, and the idea of a collective consciousness, so it was a natural fit for both research and writing. I finished another manuscript while PROPHECY was on sub, and hopefully someday I’ll go back and polish that one up.

You have so many manuscripts in the pipeline! It must be incredibly exciting to finally realize the dream of having several books out, of being a “real” author. However, you’ll only be a Debut Author once. What are you most looking forward to as we head into May, our release month?

Schindler: Wow…I think just the feeling of knowing that A BLUE SO DARK is on actual SHELVES in actual BOOKSTORES. I got these all-over tingly moments when I saw the novel on Amazon…and again when I found it on the Borders and Barnes and Noble websites. (I think it must be kind of the same feeling musicians get when they hear their songs on the radio for the first time…)


But I’m always looking ahead. I’ve honestly, seriously got a stack of manuscripts that stretches from the floor to the ceiling in the corner of my office. And I have piles of notebooks that are filled with ideas and outlines for novels that I haven’t yet drafted. If I lived to be 150, I’d never have enough time to put every idea on paper…Sometimes, I think the coolest part of selling A BLUE SO DARK is that it kind of opened doors so that I can start selling the REST of my work, too.


How ‘bout you? Are you going to celebrate on May 1st? Have you ALREADY celebrated? (Could you really take the moment in when you signed the contract? Did it seem real? I think for me, in all honesty, things started to get REAL when I held an ARC in my hands.)

Raedeke: The ARC definitely made it real! Seeing my name on the spine was kind of a wow moment! Honestly, I have been so busy trying to finish book two that I haven’t taken the time to really soak in what’s going on. I’m finishing this weekend and sending the full manuscript off to Brian, so I’ll be able to breath and enjoy this week—which is perfect timing since I’ll be signing ARCs in the Flux booth at PLA convention on Thursday!

Holly, it’s been an absolute delight to have this back-and-forth with you. I wish you a lifetime of success with your pillar of manuscripts—if I could be one tenth as productive as you I could die happy! We’re in a unique position, both of us with our debut books releasing from the same house the same week. I’m thrilled to be there with you and I can’t wait to get my hands on A BLUE SO DARK.

Schindler: Same to you, Christy! PROPHECY OF DAYS is on my must-have list…Have an absolutely fantastic time at the PLA convention…Take a deep breath during the signing and let it all soak in. Congratulations on PROPHECY, and on finishing book #2!

Find Holly at her Blog or her website - and be sure to order your copy of A BLUE SO DARK!

Sounds and Writing

Awhile ago, I got some great ideas for random smells that people love (and hate), which, in addition to being amusing, is something I go back to if I need to jog my writing mind in the area of smell. Lately I have been thinking about sound, and how some background noises can be peaceful or soothing while some (I'm talking to you, bathroom fan!) can drive you utterly insane.

For instance, I absolutely love the sound of a cat licking its rough paws, wind coming through a screen, the sloshing of the dishwasher, a child’s out-of-control laugh, and an airplane in the very distant sky. I cannot stand the sound of a knife running across a plate, fake nails on a keyboard, or someone sniffling instead of using a Kleenex. I also don’t like the sound of high-heels on a hard floor, skin screeching on a bathtub, or the loud clapping of cupped hands. Oh, and I like the sound of a man running his fingers over one-day stubble.

What about you? What are your favorite and least favorite sounds?

Russia!

I found out last night that Творческое кооперативное объединение (AKA Creative Cooperative Association AST) has made an offer to publish the Prophecy of Days books in Russian! Can you believe it? They're one of the country's largest publishers and they have a bookstore chain as well. How convenient!

It is still amazing to me that a story I typed up alone in my office has any value—to think of it being sold in places as big and far away as Russia is fairly incomprehensible.

There's a reason it only happens once a year...

Some homekeeping duties are gross (kid’s bathroom) some are depressing (file organization) but only one is gross and depressing: deep cleaning the fridge.  It’s a trip down bad memory lane—nothing found in the back of the fridge brings back fond memories. Party food always gets eaten, yummy desserts never last more than a day, celebratory champagne doesn’t even make it back in there. No, what's left to excavate from the dark recesses of the fridge are things like gallon jars of Flax seeds from that organic antioxidant kick I was on for about 12 minutes, or bottles of kid’s probiotics that remind me of when my daughter was so very sick last summer after I started my new job. Leftovers from a terrible dinner weeks ago now look like a topographical map of Nicaragua and the fish oil capsules from the anti-aging diet I found in some magazine are so old they fused together and look more like a resin sculpture than supplements. The hoarder in me is uncovered as well, in bag after bag after bag of coffee beans. My fear of having a caffeine-free morning has manifested in hundreds of dollars worth of coffee beans clogging the bins where vegetables are supposed to be kept crisp. I blame this vegetable displacement for the unidentifiable ziploc baggie full of mush that got wedged back behind martini olives from the last century. The horrifying contents of said baggie might, with the tools available at a forensic lab, be traced back to the celery family.

Am I the only one who sees the uncleaned fridge as a Petri dish of failures?

The Amazing Jennifer Cervantes

Author Jennifer Cervantes is a woman to envy: she has beauty, talent, kindness, and a house ghost named Gus. The trifecta plus a spirit from beyond? How much luckier could a woman get?! 


Well, even luckier - Jen’s first book, Tortilla Sun, will be release by Chronicle Books on May 5th. This is one book my daughter and I are both anxious to read, and I'm sure you  will be too once your read the intriguing summary.

Recently Jen stopped by to answer some questions about her road to publication. 

Welcome, Jen. Can you tell us how you met your agent? I found Laurie through agentquery.com, sent her a e-query and signed with her within a week.

Can you tell us how your book deal happened? After my lightning fast agent deal, I thought the publication process would be the same way. WRONG! I waited over a year to sell TS, but it was so worth the wait, because I got to work with editor-extraordinaire Julie Romeis. Once Julie had the ms, the deal went pretty quickly, although I think I remember biting my nails through the weeks of editorial meetings.

What was the inspiration for your 2010 debut book and how long did it take you to write?  My youngest daughter Jules asked me to write her a short story about her favorite bear (who still sleeps in her bed). So I started writing an adventurous tale. As I wrote, I became addicted. More ideas sprouted and I needed a place to put them all. I began to think about the kinds of books I would love for my daughters to read, ones where they were reflected in the pages. Before I knew it, I started writing Tortilla Sun. The first draft went rather quickly, but oh those revisions were often painful. All in all, it took about eight months to be submission ready.

What's your publication date and where in the process are you now? May 5, 2010. Everything has been finalized and the ms is ready to go to print. So right now I am in the promotional part of it which is fun too :) 

Many readers have said they got hungry reading Tortilla Sun. Was that your intention and did you get hungry while writing about all that food?  It was not my intention to make readers hungry, although I did want them to feel present in the novel, as if they were tasting the earthy tortillas along with Izzy. I’m always hungry, so that might have contributed to those yummy scenes. But really, Mexican food is such a comfort food in my life and so central to the culture that I couldn’t imagine Tortilla Sun without it!

What are you working on now? I am working on a new middle-grade novel, BLESSING NEMA about a girl who believes she is talentless. It’s a story of true friendship, self-discovery, and learning what matters most.


Do you have any words of wisdom for writers trying to get published? Other than read widely? Definitely surround yourself with positive people who will lift your spirits and inspire you to new heights. I can’t say enough about the power of positive relationships and their effect on our lives and dreams.

Where can we find out more about you on the web? www.jennifercervantes.com

Thanks for the interview, Jen. It was a pleasure to meet you at the SCBWI conference in LA, and it's a delight to share the same release week! Yay for May!

Tortilla Sun is a tender, magical story about 12 year old Izzy Roybal who is sent to spend the summer in her nana’s New Mexico village where she is soon caught up in the foreign world of her own culture, from patron saints and soulful food to the curious and magical blessings Nana gives her tortillas. In Nana’s village she meets Mateo, the adventurous, treasure seeking thirteen year old boy who lives on the other side of the bolted door in Izzy’s bedroom and six year old Maggie who is raising her cat, Frida, as a dog and sees marshmallow ghosts float out windows. When the wind begins to whisper to Izzy, she is soon led on an adventure to learn about her father’s mysterious death, who she really is, and to connect the hidden pieces of her past.

Kepler’s Forever!

One of the highlights of my book journey so far: finding that Kepler’s, one of my favorite indie bookstores in the world, posted my book on their blog! Pinch me!

No Wonder I'm So Weird - Sid & Marty Krofft Made Me That Way

I watch cartoons these days with wonder and amazement. Shows like Flapjack and Chowder that captivate kids make me scratch my head. They’re random and weird and disturbing all at once. But who am I to judge? I grew up devouring anything produced by Sid & Marty Krofft. I remember these programs as being pretty normal but now when I show clips to my kids they think they are completely random and weird and disturbing.

Was anyone else a huge fan of big puppets and Billy Barty? Is this why my generation is a bit twisted?

Cougar Pride

This past weekend I went to the beach with a small group of friends from college, women I have known now for 25 years. That's a hard number to swallow, especially considering that in my mind I am still 33. The weekend could not have come at a worse time—Book 2 is due on the 15th and I still have loads of work to do on it. But I’d purchased the plane ticket long ago, and knew that breaking my commitment to this group would mean never hearing the end of it. These women can be brutal!

So I went. And instead of bringing my computer, I just printed out all the pages of the manuscript and put them in a binder. If I couldn’t write, at least I’d have time to read what I had so far. And you know what? I liked it! Writing this while working full time has been really hard, far harder than writing the first book, and as I’d slogged on writing all I thought about was how impossibly arcane it was all getting. But stepping back, I saw that it made sense. It was the oddest sensation to finish reading last night and think, wow, I might have pulled off a first draft after all! I guess I needed some distance from the project; I’d been so close up all I saw were the flaws in the brick instead of the building I was creating.

So it was a great weekend. And I'm not just talking about the Salty Dogs and Cajun tater tots. These are smart and beautiful women, but above all else they are funny. I laughed more and laughed harder than I had in months—at one point we literally laughed Molly into an asthma attack. It just doesn't get better than that.

However, my favorite part of the weekend was when we had to run to Safeway for reinforcement snacks. As we were walking in, about five twentysomething boys were walking out. While I peeled off to grab a cart, they looked my friends up and down and said, “There’s a fine pack of Cougars!”

Had I not been doubled over laughing, I would have told them it’s not a pack, it’s a pride. A pride of Cougars.

Polska!

I got some great news from my agent late last night – foreign rights have been sold to Poland! Well, not to the Republic of Poland, but to Polish publisher Vik Grazyna Piekutowska. Foreign Rights are so fun because you get to feel the excitement of selling your book over and over and over again! Then comes the delight of seeing a totally different cover. Most excellent!

Thank you, Poland, for being my first foreign rights offer. To be published in the country that brought the world Copernicus, Chopin, Skłodowska-Curie, and the pierogi is a great thrill. Na zdrowie!

Oh how I love Wednesdays...

Especially when I get a Waiting on Wednesday mention. Thanks Nicole, over at Who, What, When! I'm thrilled to be your WoW book.

Thrown to the Librarians!

Today was a mini publishing milestone – an invitation to sign books in the Flux booth at the Public Library Association’s National Conference in the end of March. What a thrill!

Having never been in the presence of more than two at once, I’m a little terrified of being in the midst of so many librarians. Will they ask questions I can’t answer? Will they know, just by the look of me, that I sometimes dog ear pages? What if I’m not erudite enough? What if *gasp* no one asks for a copy?

Good thing I have a couple of months to stress out about it.  Anyone else going to be attending or signing at the PLA in Portland?

From what is not there...

Shelley had an funny and interesting post last week about multitasking, which ended with a bit about making room for pausing, for dreaming, for "taking in" in your creative life. I was struck by this post because for the last few months I’ve done nothing but try to plow full steam ahead on Book Two. It’s no secret that it’s been tough. It’s a complex story and the first book, at 90,000 words, sets up a lot of things that need to be resolved. I love the book, but lately it’s felt like I’ve been running while exhaling only. I haven’t had the luxury of time to inhale. And sometimes I think that’s where the good stuff is. In the pauses.

I don’t pretend to understand the Tao Te Ching, but one chapter has always stood out as a fascinating example of how what’s “not there” is often what’s most  useful:

We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move.
We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside that holds what we want.
We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space that makes it livable.
Therefore benefit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.

Today, some inhaling!

R.I.P. Redux

Three and a half weeks to Book Two deadline, so no time to blog. Instead, I shall resurrect and old favorite!

Last night at dinner the kids asked for some funny stories from college. They didn’t eat much after I spun this yarn for them:

August, 1986 Eugene, Oregon

When we were sophomores, a group of girls and I decided to do a summer sublet of a sketchy little house west of campus from some older boys who wanted to keep it for the following year. It was a classic university rental complete with cracking linoleum floors, chipped sinks, and carpet that had been moist for so long that we’d often find mushrooms growing in dark corners.

One night, when we had nothing to do and no money with which to do it, we decided to poke around the house, see if the boys had left anything interesting stashed away—you know, boxes of gold bouillon, or at the least, embarrassing personal items or a six pack. I think it was just four of us, Julie, Tina, Peggy, and me, because MK was always on dates. (Side note to children: going on dates is overrated; you miss all the Good Stuff that happens. So don’t. Date.) The garage on the rental was around the back of the house, which was strange, and meant that we never parked in it or used it in any way. It was about 1:30 in the morning and we were bored and poking around in the mystery garage when we came across a jar, one of those big glass ones for restaurant-sized pepperoncini and mayonnaise. It was covered in dust but inordinately heavy, so we thought maybe we’d discovered someone’s change jar. Bingo! No strangers to scraping up change, we knew a restaurant-sized mayonnaise jar full of it could keep us in Pop Tarts and wine coolers for weeks!

We carried it into the kitchen and rubbed it down with a wet cloth. I think Peggy screamed first. As you may know, when a handful of girls are together late at night and one screams, all hell breaks lose. We all started screaming, each one getting louder than the one before it. It wasn’t until I looked through the smear of wet dust into the jar that I realized why Peggy was screaming: there was a baby in the jar. A baby packed into the jar, suspended in a clear greenish yellow fluid.

Once we all realized what it was, we started a fresh round of screaming, followed by the phrase/chant that most often follows screaming: ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!

I’m not sure which one of us geniuses thought to take it to the hospital. It was about 2:00 in the morning by then and we probably thought that showing up at the police station with Bartles & Jaymes on our breath and a baby in a jar might not be the smartest move. What do you do when you can’t go to the police? Take the baby to the hospital, natch!

Peggy didn't want a big jar of unknown fluids seeping out on the velour seats of her '78 Buick Electra so we piled into Tina’s '66 Plymouth Valiant with its pleather seats. [May I digress here and mention that Tina could be guy-level gross in terms of, well, everything, but she was drop-dead gorgeous. You’ve probably seen her: she was chosen as the Black Velvet Girl and graced billboards and magazines worldwide 1988ish, PPB (post pickled baby).]

Tina drove the Valiant exactly as if she was taking an ailing living baby to the hospital, as if having a baby-in-a-jar emergency protected her from being pulled over for reckless driving. It was terrifying. As the person holding Pickled Baby, I expected some of the bile-colored juice to sploosh onto my lap with each corner she squealed around, but happily the thing was sealed tight as a drum.

We got to the hospital—the ER, no less!—and parked right outside the door, emergency style. We were greeted by a jaded clerk who had seen most everything; Sacred Heart was right at the edge of campus and hosted a wide variety of ex-hippie crazy homeless regulars like The Man Who Swallowed Barbie Heads.

I was holding a dish towel around the jar like a curtain on a freak show. When the woman asked who had the emergency I stepped forward, put the jar on the counter, and lowered the towel a bit. “We found this in our garage,” we all whispered. “It’s a rental,” I added. “The house, I mean.”

She put us in a private room to wait, thinking four girls with a pickled baby might be too much for ER patients awaiting triage to handle. I think we expected to have a Doctor show up, maybe do a little forensics à la Quincy, M.E., but instead we got what we were avoiding in the first place: the police.

They took our statement and the jar. Neither was ever seen again.

R.I.P. Pickled Baby. R.I.P.

Book Cover Symbolism

I’ve had a lot of questions lately about the image on the cover of Prophecy of Days. Was it something I made up? Something the cover artist drew? Something I found in clipart?

Nope, it’s part of a very old symbol found all over Asia, Eurpoe, and the British Isles. Can you find the bit from the cover in this old carving? (Photograph by Chris Chapman - check it out here.)

Yep, it’s the ears. This symbol is called the Three Hares and the oldest example (600 AD) was found in the Dunhuang Caves in China. From there it's traced all over Eurasia to England, following the Silk Road. This symbol figures prominently in book one, and becomes a key turning point in book two. Though it has a rich and interesting history, the Three Hares icon has not been accurately decoded.

Yet…

Mwah ha ha…

Welcome, 2010! May you be a kind and gentle year.

I can happily say goodbye to 2009, a bumpy year at best, and welcome 2010 with open arms. It’s not every year you can say that a lifelong dream will be fulfilled!

The road to publication in 2010 has been long: The idea for my series was conceived in 2002, my agent sold it in 2008, and publication will be in May 2010. Almost here!!! But now comes the scary part—my ARC will go to reviewers and buyers and librarians, all people paid to judge whether my book is worthy of their pages or shelves. Not quite sure which side I’ll end up on. As much as I say I won’t listen to reviews, that the joy is in the writing and publishing, I have to be honest: it will suck.

Just chalk it up to one more thing the writer has little control over once the book is baked. The hardest thing about publishing has been this lack of control; once the manuscript is in the agent’s hands you pretty much give it up. You can help shape your book’s destiny by the choices you make, but the real power is in the agent’s hands. When the book sells, that power then transfers to the publishing house. Cover art, cover copy, catalog copy, ARC distribution, publicity—all those things that matter heavily in the success of your product you have little say in. So for a Type-A control freak like me, this part is scary. I have been trying to grasp the concept of this thing called “patience” but apparently I am a slow learner.

For now, I’ll focus on what I can control: making Book Two as good as it can be! For until I hand it off, the power still lies with me.

Happy happy new year to one and all. May it be a year filled with abundant good reads!

Have a holly jolly holiday!

As a kid, I would have loved to have been sucked into a Rankin/Bass movie - so we shrunk our kids and put them in one!

Happy New Year, everyone!

If you like sparkly gherkins...

History is being made, folks! YA Authors Josh Berk & Kiersten White (aka the VERY REAL band The Improbable Probable) have written the first song inspired by a Twitter hashtag.

“#weirdtreeornament” features, among others, a mullet ornament, a sparkly pickle ornament, and even a Prophecy of Days ornament!

Go Improbable Probables! I hear a rap is in production next. Hope it's positively cringe-worthy...

The Bound Book Arrives!

Today was a banner day—an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) came in the mail! It was a great early Christmas present worthy of a mini photo shoot.

Here it is in a festive surrounding:

And here it is in what will soon be its native environment:

As a writer, reading someone else’s summary of your work is a strange and wonderful thing. Here’s how the back jacket copy reads:

When her safecracker mom and code-breaker dad inherit a dreary Scottish castle, sixteen-year-old Caity Mac Fireland is not happy. Ripped from her cushy life and friends in San Francisco, Caity’s secret fantasy of being discovered by a Hollywood agent, talent scout, or even just a pageant coach seems more unlikely than ever.

But when Caity stumbles across as hidden room in the castle, its walls covered in strange symbols, her life takes a bizarre turn. She finds herself center stage in an international conspiracy involving warring secret societies, assassins, the suppressed revelations or the Mayan calendar and the year 2012, plus the fate of humanity.

With the help of her friend Justine back home, and Alex, a gorgeous and mysterious Scottish boy, Caity must race to decipher the code and real its message to the world before time runs out.

I like it. It’s not at all what I would’ve written, but that’s probably a good thing. Now I’m going to settle in with my ARC and give it a read. It’s such an odd feeling to be holding a bound book that has my name on the spine!

Forty Minutes and Counting...

I have 36 days until the sequel to Prophecy of Days - The Daykeeper's Grimoire is due to the publisher and I am FREAKING OUT about this impending deadline.

Anyone have any great tips for writing under pressure?

I just got a good one today from author Teri Hall, who coincidentally also has a January 4 deadline for her second book, the sequel to The Line. Here’s her new trick:

• Internet off.
• Email off.
• Already peed.
• Already have drink in front of you.
• Set timer where you cannot see it for 40 minutes.
• Start writing and don’t stop until the timer goes off.

I’m going to try two sessions of it tonight!

Any other ideas?

Where the Banshees live, and they do live well...

This weekend my daughter got a package from her godfather Daves, who is an expatriate living and working in London. In it were two things we quite enjoyed: a bag of Shrimps & Bananas, possibly the world’s strangest sweet or “candy foam” as it’s called on the package and a miniature build-your-own-Stonehenge kit, complete with perfect placement instructions. It totally reminded me of the tiny Stonehenge set in Spinal Tap, which is my favorite part of the movie. Remember this?



This gift was perfectly timed – the same day we got the package from London, Prophecy of Days went up on Amazon UK! It’s surprisingly fun to see the British pound sign next to the book.

Long live the Queen! And thanks, Daves!

The Dark Faerie Tales site has featured Prophecy of Days as the Waiting on Wednesday pick! Totally exciting - the cover looks gorgeous on her dark and beautiful website. Thanks Angela!

Check it out here!

Happy Hoo Oc To You!

Since I’m mildly obsessed with the Maya calendar system, I’ve been enforcing the celebration of our Maya birthdays around here. You can imagine how difficult that has been with children, especially since your birthday rolls around every 260 days!

Tomorrow is Hoo Oc (Five Dog), which happens to be Scott’s birthday. Look at how beautiful tomorrow's date is in its full glyphic expression:

It has been 1,870,870 days since the beginning of the Long Count calendar—the calendar that’s got everyone in a froth because it ends on December 12, 2012.

1,870,870 days down, 1130 days to go…

Want a pictograph of a special day? Click here!

Writers are weird, man!

There’s an excellent article in the Wall Street Journal about how writers write. I found it really fascinating—especially Richard Powers who lays around in bed speaking his novels aloud and Nicholson Baker who wakes at 4 a.m. to write in gray on a black screen so he can’t see it, then goes back to bed and wakes at 8:30 to edit what he had written in his semi-lucid state. Writers are an odd lot!

For more, check out the WSJ article here.

And in other news, The Book Resort featured a little interview with me today. Read all about my fascinating relationship with the Golden Oreo, among other tidbits.

Kindle Giveaway!

The Universe doled out a new Kindle to authors Laura and Lisa (The Haunting of Pemberly Brown, Sourcebooks 2011) and they’re generously passing it along to one lucky blog reader. Go here to enter. Gifts passed on via The Universe generally have magical powers, so don’t dawdle my friends! The bonus is that Lisa And Laura’s blog also happens to be hilarious.

Prospect of Owning Magical Kindle

+

Endlessly Funny Blog

=

Great Use of Your Time

Gnomeo, Gnomeo wherefore art thou, Gnomeo?

For Halloween this year the kids went as Gnomeo and Juliet.

Gnomeo’s hat made him easy to find when we went downtown for the parade.

My favorite costume? The guy who put a Fortune Telling Booth over his Segway and cruised around. Look at the throngs of people behind him - the whole town shows up to walk down Main Street.

Gnomeo tried his luck with Zoltar (see the tiny red hat tip? He's got a couple of G-Men watching his back...). Gnomeo's fortune: Smartees.

Admission of guilt: Bribery of a minor

If you are 1) judgy or 2) have only one child or 3) are really into birthdays, you may not want to read on.

We just bought our child out of a sixth birthday party. I couldn’t handle the planning and preparation, nor could I wade through the 40-something children in kindergarten to figure out whom to invite. So we gave Hank a choice: a shopping spree at Toys R Us or a party. He took about .073 seconds to consider the options.

It was the best birthday ever. We went out to breakfast where he was allowed to order chocolate chip pancakes and hot chocolate and then immediately shuttled him to the store to channel the chocolate energy. The only think that makes me bitchier than a dose of Sudafed is being trapped in Toys R Us (the plastic! the neon! the electronic noises!) so I left to run errands while Scott patiently waded through aisles of toys with Hank and shopping consultant, Juliet. Hank made some great choices within the amount of money we gave him and even offered to buy his sister a game.

No invites, no gift bags, no kindergarten boys jacked up on cake and ice cream. I plan to offer this choice every year! If nothing else it’s good angst fodder for when he grows up and realizes he doesn’t have any birthday party photos.

But before you judge me for my child bribery, regard the joy!

Sleeping in Piles and Growing Up

I’ve become obsessed with a line from the Where the Wild Things Are movie and I can’t stop saying it in my head. It was a little after Max had arrived to the island; he and the wild things had been running around trashing the place and having a great time and then they stop and talk about all the fun stuff they’ll do and Max adds, “And we’ll all sleep together in a real pile!” And they do. And Max is happy.

This sentence, this sentiment really struck a chord with me.

I think the movie did an amazing job of echoing the sadness of growing up. There is terror in getting older—terror in family dynamics changing, friends changing, self changing. I can distinctly remember times in my own childhood when even just a minor shift in how things were would make me long for a way to freeze time. I wanted to be able to rewind life so that I could unravel what was becoming increasingly complex. There were many small moments in the film that seemed to shine a ray of light on those terrors, but for me nothing seemed to illuminate them as fully as the phrase: “And we’ll all sleep together in a real pile.”

Maybe if you had to pin down a formative moment of sadness in childhood, it might come when you get too big to lie/sleep on your parent. At some point it becomes either inappropriate or just plain uncomfortable and the one feeling of ultimate security is no longer available to you. That physical sense of disconnectedness changes you inside.

Tonight on the couch, my daughter was draped over me for so long that my legs fell totally asleep. I consciously felt my limbs go from tingles to pins-and-needles to complete numbness. I just rolled with it. I didn’t want to move her, didn’t want her to feel responsible for the growth that will, not long from now, make it impossible for her to lie in a pile on me.

Disconnection happens on many levels, but I think we feel it first on the physical.

Author Photo - Gas Me Up Next Time

Of course I waited until 8 hours before my author photo was due to the publisher to have them taken. It's not much, but it's all I could do with the raw materials I was given. Thanks to photographer Joan Kleen for her patience with me - given the choice between gum replacement surgery and a photo session, I'll take the dentist chair every time! Unless I can find a photographer who can give me gas in that little vanilla-scented nose cone before the shoot.

PS: I seem to have misplaced my eyes. If anyone finds them, could you send them to me? Thanks a million.

I love you, Story Siren!

This totally made my week! Check out the link here. I love Story Siren even more than Häagen-Dazs Carmel Cone ice cream - and that's saying something!

The Muse and The Omen

After a particularly horrible week of work, I decided to run away. I called my Mom Thursday night to see if the cabin was open and left right after work on Friday to see how much I could get done on Book 2. Here’s a photo montage of my weekend of writing.

The Venue

The View

The Ambiance

The Muse

The Best Part

The Omen (found on the doorstep when I arrived)

Good or Bad?

A Nine-Year-Old Takes On Politics

Today my daughter ran for fourth grade president and came out with a victory! Here's the winning speech she wrote last night:

Juliet’s Fourth Grade President Speech

Hello! As you know, my name is Juliet and I’d like to be your president. Why would I be a good president? First, I’m very organized – just look in my desk! Second, if anyone has ideas on how to improve the school, come right up to me anytime and tell me. I think good ideas come from everyone. Third, I’m not bossy. I would never tell anyone to do something without saying please unless it was urgent. Fourth, I try to be nice to everyone I meet. If you are having a problem with someone you can talk to me and I’ll help you. It’s not fun to be bullied, and trust me I have experienced bullying before and I will not, repeat not, ever bully anyone in the whole world. Fifth, I have some really good ideas for raising money for the Zoo Snooze so we can definitely go. Last, my little brother Hank, who is super cute and smart, REALLY wants me to be elected! (He made me write that.) Thanks for considering me for your Fourth Grade President!

Now she's power-hungry and climbing the ladder - at dinner she mentioned wanting to run for Student Council president so she could be president of the presidents... To what end, Juliet? To what end?

Cheap Thrills

Here’s something I’ll never get used to: reading a blog and seeing my book cover on it! What a thrill. Thanks to Kelsey at Reading Keeps You Sane, Kate at The Neverending Shelf, and Sab at Crystal Reviews for featuring my new cover! We debut authors love love love you blog reviewers.

XO

Book Cover Art!

I'm told there will be foil on the circular symbol. Mmm, shiny!

What do you think?

Into the Wild: The Hypocrite's Edition

Lately the kids and I have been taking walks in the woods behind our house after work. These are the same woods I played in as a child, but without any parental supervision. My sister and I would walk up the hill then down through the gulley where a creek ran, following it all the way to the waterfall where it got too steep to climb. Then we’d tack right and hike up to what we called The Big Rocks—granite boulders the size of tanks—and come back down to play in the muddy irrigation canal that traversed the steep hill and brought water from the mountain lakes to the valley’s farms and orchards. This was our playground.

The summer of my senior year, my friend Dennis and I would make plans for late-night rendezvous up at the canal when our parents had gone to sleep. Truly a friendship, there was never any romantic intention to these meetings but I do remember it being magical in the way life is when you are sixteen and sneaking away to sit on the side of a mountain by a canal with a boy, stars winking above you and the town lights winking below. Like Moon Flowers, the long philosophical conversations we had on the phone bloomed more fully in the night air.

What amazes me now is how fearless I was then, popping the screen out of my window and climbing out to run off into the dark. The trail to the canal was so heavily wooded that even on a moonlit night it would be black as a cave. I knew the trail by heart, though, and ran the mile or so without stopping. I never thought of cougars or madmen or bears or snakes—all absolutely real threats in those woods—and if someone had warned me, I would have rolled my eyes. Dying is impossible at that age. Danger is like a free and easy drug when the fragility of life is such a foreign idea.

As I walk the trails as an adult with my own kids, I’m torn. The relationship those woods and I have is as important and as meaningful as any childhood friendship, and the freedom we were given to roam was instrumental in shaping my sense of independence and capability.

Will I allow that for my own kids? I don’t know. I wish I could say yes but I’m still not sure.

How do you feel about kids running off into the wild?

What Would You Take?

Today the kids had to evacuate the school and we had to evacuate our house due to a raging fire that got far too close for comfort. You think you know exactly what you’d take in a situation like this, but after I’d secured our laptops in the car I was at a loss. I’d had the presence of mind to grab my favorite Estee Lauder face powder brush and then just sort of wandered aimlessly through the house. Photos could be reprinted. Clothing could be replaced by a couple of trips to Target. Shoes? Bags? I’d wanted to pare down. It was weird how unsentimental I was when it came right down to it, though I did get the kids’ baby boxes—all the special little bits and bobs one keeps—on the last run through.

The fire is not yet contained. As I type, helicopters are still dropping loads of water on the hillside. But we are safe and we have each other. And a very good powder brush.

When Worlds Collide

After Prophecy of Days sold last year, I started a new manuscript—a twist on a ghost story that involves a teen girl, her triplet brothers, and a Buddhist monastery. It's one of those ideas that came fully formed, and I'm not sure from where. I took a few classes at a Buddhist monastery in Seattle, but that was over a decade ago and I haven't set foot in one since.

Meanwhile, in my other life, I started a new job. When I applied for the position the company was in another building, and since accepting the job on July 1 and starting on August 12, the company moved to a great new space in Ashland. When I showed up the first day, I discovered that my desk looks directly at this:

Intrigued by the strange design, I went over at lunch to investigate what this oddly constructed building will be. I’d love to say I was blasé when I found it was the first newly built urban Tibetan Buddhist center in the United Sates, but I am wired to find synchronicity. Here’s a photo of what the finished construction will look like from the back, what I will see from my office:

Every day when I come to work I park not 20 feet from this jobsite. The eight or nine hours I’m at my desk I look directly at the construction. There are all sorts of cheesy metaphors that I could make between constructing a building and building a novel, or concepts I could apply to the writing process, like patience and attention to detail. But mostly I just like to watch this thing being built, piece by piece, day by day. In a strange way it has made me relax into the process of selling a book. And it’s given me a new, longer timeline—I like to believe that this manuscript will come to fruition at the same time construction finishes and the Tibetan Lamas move in. If I had to guess based on its current state vis a vis finished architectural drawings, I’d say it might be a while. But really, who can tell with these things?

Tears and Coffee

Today was Hank's first day of kindergarten!

Now I have two kids at the same school—a first!

Since we're just two blocks from Bellview it's a nice little walk.

I admit I teared up a little as I said goodbye. The teacher's aide helped me with some distraction so I could leave without making a scene. However, tears turned to joy when I went for coffee with Mom right after drop off.

How can you be sad around such a beautiful vehicle for caffeine? The accompanying Tartine with ham and thyme butter was camera shy but equally gorgeous.

Creepiness in the Woods - Redux

Do you remember a few months ago when I posted about the Cat Psycho at my Dad’s house? If you need a refresher, the post is here. Basically, he had left his house, which is in the middle of nowhere and protected by a gate with a code, to run some errands and when he got back his big black cat—still inside the house—was wearing a shiny new red collar. The same collar, in fact, that can be seen in a painting that is also inside his house. Nothing was missing, nothing was trashed. Which is, of course, the creepiest part.

Other odd things started happening. A sandwich that had been left for a moment outside would be relocated. Items would go missing and then return in odd places. They even called the sheriff at one point, but realized they sounded insane when mentioning things like sandwiches being moved around on the patio and cats being collared while they were gone.

For months, it remained a mystery of creepy proportions.

A couple of weeks ago, neighbors up the hill came by to say they were moving. Something about a new job and better care for their daughter, who, they finally confided, was schizophrenic. These neighbors mentioned they couldn’t take many of the potted plants they had outside and invited my Dad to go by and pick them up if he wanted them. Once the neighbors were gone they went over to get the plants. It was then that they noticed that a small section of fence near the back of the property was missing. They went to investigate and found a path through the woods that led—you guessed it—right to the edge of my Dad’s acreage. From the looks of the trail, the girl had been on the path trhough the woods hundreds of times.

It makes sense now: A mentally ill girl trapped with her parents on a mountain looking for something interesting to do. They had been there a couple of years and you have to wonder how many times the girl had watched them from the woods, let herself in to their house, walked around among their things, left with something small and meaningless.

The question is, what would be worse—never solving the mystery or realizing that you’d been watched for years?